Category: Harrdware

My daughter has a Toshiba Satellite Laptop and was given a free copy of Microsoft Office 365 as part of her school enrolment.

Unfortunately when she upgraded her laptop to Windows 10, the on-board ethernet adapter stopped working, so she only had WiFi network access.

When we tried to download office using the new “Click to Install” technology, the installation continually failed because the WiFi connection was not fast enough.

Sadly, Office 365 is not available on CD or DVD, so the only way we could install it was as a download.

I am aware that Microsoft offers an offline installation option via the “My Account” option, but this isn’t available for school-based copies of Office, only for store-bought copies.  The school portal only allows a “Click to Install” option.

After trying to fix the on-board ethernet adapter, and scouring the web for Windows 10 drivers, I decided this was a waste of my time, and bought a Comsol USB 3.0 Ehternet Adapter for the laptop.

This turns a USB 3.0 port into a hard-wired ethernet adapter.

I then pluged the laptop into the wired Lan via an RJ45 cable, started the Office 365 download, and hey presto! It worked!

FigJam to me.

Cost of Comsol USB 3.0 Ethernet adapter: $43.88 from Officeworks.

I could have sent the laptop off to Toshiba to get fixed, but considering the effort taking it there, waiting for it to get fixed, bringing it back, I decided it was cheaper to spend $43 on the adapter.

Warning: Make sure you plug it into a USB 3 port on the laptop.  It doesn’t seem to work if you plug it into a USB 2 port.

I hope this helps anyone else with a similar problem.

I took Steve and Harrison on a bike ride this morning, along the North Pine River, up to Lake Samsonvale, and then back along the North Pine Rover.

It was a hoot! A little bit slower than normal, because Harrison is only 9 and his bike is a bit worse for wear. But it was fun all the same.

And I got to try out a new program for my Nokia N95 mobile phone. Nokia Sports Tracker Uses the inbuilt GPS on the phone to record speed and height info. While you’re cycling, your N95 acts like a speedo, and odometer, showing you all the vital stats. But when you get home, you click the button, and upload the data to sports tracker.

The really cool thing is that if you take any photos with the phone on your journey, it will upload and geotag them.

So the map on the left here is where we went. You can drag and zoom it if you want more detail.

But the fun part is that the data is also uploaded to the Sportstracker community. Here’s a link to the data for our ride today. If you tick the “altitude” box, you can see every hill, and how fast we were going.

The thing I like most about this technology is that it adds to the fun of getting out and exercising. At times I’ve found it hard to overcome my inertia to regularly exercise. In regards to exercise, if it makes me think “Oh yeah! I want to do that again!” then I think it’s a great thing.

Oh – and you can use Sports Tracker for running, walking, skiing, rowing – whatever floats your boat.

P.S. I’ve ordered a mounting bracket to attach my phone to my handlebars. Till that arrives, I’m using some of Lilly’s hair ties 🙂